This study focuses on nuclear tourism, which flourished a decade ago in the Exclusion
Zone, a regimented area around the Chornobyl Nuclear Power Plant (Ukraine) established
in 1986, where the largest recorded nuclear explosion in human history occurred. The
mass pilgrimage movement transformed the place into an open air museum, a space that
preserves the remnants of Soviet culture, revealing human tragedies of displacement
and deaths, and the nature of state nuclear power. This study examines the impact of
the site on its visitors and the motivations for their persistence and activities in the
Zone, and argues that through photography, cartography, exploration, and discovery,
the pilgrims attempt to decode the historical and ideological meaning of Chornobyl
and its significance for future generations. Ultimately, the aesthetic and political space
of the Zone helps them establish a conceptual and mnemonic connection between the
Soviet past and Ukraine’s present and future. Their practices, in turn, help maintain
the Zone’s spatial and epistemological continuity. Importantly, Chornobyl seems to
be polysemic in nature, inviting interpretations and shaping people’s national and
intellectual identities.